Four Brothers |  | Actors: Josh Charles, Terrence Howard, Kenneth Welsh, Fionnula Flanagan, Mark Wahlberg
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $0.86
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 129963
Format: Collector's Edition, Special Edition, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 344072
UPC: 097363440727
EAN: 0097363440727
ASIN: B000BDGW4O
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: December 20, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
John Singleton's urban western set in the Motor City April 6, 2006
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan) was a saintly woman, a white-haired grandmother who tried to make things better in her neighborhood in Detroit. When we meet her she is in a convenience store convincing a young boy that shoplifting is not a good path to take in life. However, after winning that small but important victory she is brutally murdered along with the store clerk by a couple of masked men. Everybody who knew Evelyn comes to her funeral, including her four adopted sons. Bobby (Mark Wahlberg) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund) are white, Angel (Tyrese Gibson) and Jeremiah( Andre Benjamin) are black, but such distinctions did not matter to Evelyn and they do not matter to these "Four Brothers."
The four are Evelyn's only adopted sons because she managed to place all of the dozens of other foster children she took into her home. But these four were apparently incorrigible, which not only explains why they were never adopted but also why they are going to take matters into their own hands after their mother's funeral. They still try to be good to honor their mother, but unleashing their bad sides might be needed under the circumstances. Suffice it to say that her murder was not happenstance and most of John Singleton's film is devoted to finding out is responsible for her death and doing something about it. This does not sit well with Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) and Detective Fowler (Josh Charles), who are working the case and know all about the unsavory reputations of the Mercer boys, but clearly this part of the Motor City is run by the criminals, in this case the crime boss Victor Sweet (Chiwetel Ejiofor). So we know who is ultimately guilty, but the question is why Evelyn had to die and that takes a while to unravel from the brothers' end of the story.
I was going to say that the four brothers are willing to go where the police will not go and do what the cops are afraid to do, but since these cops are perfectly willing to beat up suspects during an interrogation it is clearly more the former than the latter than matters here (and there is a nice running gag of sorts involving a hair in a plastic bag). Singleton is not pretending to make a message film like "Boyz in the Hood," but rather telling an urban tale that is really more like an old fashioned Western than any of the more obvious genres it brings to mind (the fact Singleton said as much was a big clue). "Four Brothers" is not a great action thriller, but it is certainly a solid one and has the virtue of not having the negative aspects that are often attendant with such films. Plus, what the brothers do to the bad guy in the end, well, that is just plain cold.
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